Gaara One-Shot
by ShayDevilGirl
Summary: Just a simple GaaraxOC one-shot, hope you enjoy


As sparks leapt through the air, swirling off the clashing of the dueller's intense battle Mayu fought on, yet if anyone saw they could know she did not fight for anything. Even to herself while Mayu's body worked on autopilot her mind was long gone. Her coal like eyes no longer sparked with an eternal flame after her year-long missions as an assassin. She'd returned home to Suna yet couldn't stay within the city's walls she'd been walking along the edges a little while away from the walls and entrance.

So now Mayu found herself caught in battle with a former adversary fighting under the hot sun, a simple movement there and here to keep herself alive. Mayu was locked within the entrappings and hauntings of her own mind. It seemed pointless in her mind now and as she carried on in the fight it was less and less of a worry. Her mind was betraying her body; he was the one to deliver the fatal blow. The enemy ninja was gone in a wisp of the wind as Mayu fell to her knees blood pooling around her. She stared at his retreating figure that disappeared over the horizon; she knew he held nothing against her, that shinobi had been much like her, killing as the orders are given with no regret or mercy. Mayu could almost thank him whilst the edge of her vision started to blur. He'd pierced a lung. Falling abruptly when her own weight became too much to bear. Turning slowly Mayu looked up to the sky on her back. The sun's heat felt nice and for the first time in awhile she let her childhood memories of playing with a red-headed silent boy come to her, and she relaxed. In that instant as the tension melted away from Mayu's body so did the pain, it faded and numbed and a peaceful haze fell over the young kunoichi.

Sun bearing down Mayu's eyes drifted closed and she almost caught the sound of footsteps and yelling from far away. She couldn't care. Her body was drifting now; there was no sight or sound, smell, taste or touch. It seemed weightless. Almost like drifting down a stream that carried you on. On to her next destination perhaps? Mayu pondered briefly before her thoughts wondered away from that. It was warm here. She didn't know how but Mayu knew that her insides were warm as though she hadn't been stabbed and should still be bleeding out. Mayu attempted concentrating more but she just couldn't now, in fact how had she been stabbed? After that, things other than her body faded everything within her was starting to disappear and the one thing Mayu knew for certainty was that her body had nearly given out.

Somehow though as Mayu numbed, the pain came flying back in a flash. Burning and whipping through her as all at once everything that meant life for a human came slamming back at her and she was ripped away from the streaming river. For a brief moment Mayu was back lying in a puddle of her own crimson blood, a pink-haired girl bent over her stomach hands glowing green. Then black. Before once more she caught the sight of the high sun shining down and light up the spiked hair of Sabaku no Gaara staring down at her worry etched into his face. But in a quick flash she wasn't at the river but instead Mayu was in total darkness, she had blacked out. During the time that passed afterwards in despite of the brief flashes of sight of that river, Mayu was mostly stuck in that dark abyss.

Here there was pain and lots of it. Although Mayu knew pain and this could almost be a comfort in spite of itself. What was the point of this pain? Mayu assumed eventually the constant burning in her body was a punishment more than anything. The girl would cry if she could because now the pains of her own thoughts were pushed back at her, the things that added to her reasons to stop caring about life.

Before the fight, upon returning Mayu found out her childhood partners, her first comrades as a shinobi of Suna had been killed in action and their names now rested on the villages K.I.A. stone. Then an older student, Temari who'd been a mentor was gone to Konoha having found love there and now moved back and forth through villages. Further, Mayu's family hadn't wanted anything to do with her since she'd become an assassin and finally Gaara, the first person she'd become close to no matter his status as a jinchuriki, was kazekage and Mayu couldn't imagine him even remembering her much now. Maybe she was slightly selfish in her reasoning at the time, maybe not but Mayu was lost and had been for quite some time. Returning had simply been the breaking point; she was alone.

It took weak force for Mayu to make herself break through the black barrier and open her eyes to stare up at the white ceiling of the hospital. There were voices outside her room but the door muffled it she only made out two sentence clearly enough to make out entirely, "I don't get how she got the wound, there were no other marks to bear witness that she was the weaker opponent. I'm not sure she truly wanted to win..."

When they walked in Mayu had turned to face the window before facing three people; the pink haired girl from before she now recognized as the Leaf's Sakura Haruno, Temari and Gaara. Sakura gave a brief explanation about caring to her wounds before rushing off to something else. Temari brushed a hand on Mayu's cheek wiping away the stray tear of the younger girl. "What did the world do to make a gentle kind soul stop caring?" Temari murmured before turning on her heel abruptly whispering something to Gaara and disappearing out the door. Mayu finally turned to meet his jade eyes still ringed in black, she mumbled "Can we go to the roof?" Still studying her quietly Gaara nodded before lightly gripping Mayu's arm. Sand swirled around them briefly before they were on the towering roof of the hospital and looking over the sand village. Using what strength her body currently had Mayu stepped away and Gaara still behind her she looked at the sandy streets and buildings, rubbing her arm idly.

She broke the silence, "Congratulations Gaara, I'm sorry I wasn't here when you were first chosen." He came up a bit closer to almost stand by her side replying in his same monotone "It's fine, are you...are you alright Mayu?" Mayu couldn't help a small giggle; Gaara still wasn't good with feelings or speaking much in general that much would never change. "I guess...I just feel lonely Gaara...I have for awhile." He studied her with those powerful eyes and Mayu struggled not to twitch, he spoke "So you decided you wouldn't fight anymore?" there was a sharper hint to his voice now, not quite anger something like it mixed with...anguish? Mayu couldn't meet his eyes after that suddenly feeling stupid.

She looked up into the blue skies "You know what my job was out there, Gaara. I killed them all, every order, I took it and did it. After handing out the death maybe it's time for me to face it thought sending a pang through her heart. "What? No!" "Then you're not allowed to die either!" The times where she'd seen Gaara have an outburst were few and far in between, it left her stunned as with each hand he gripped her shoulders tightly. Almost hysterically, his look was similar to the feeling she'd had at him dying. "Mayu, I've killed just as much and in cold blood. If I'm the Kazekage now there's no way you deserve death and if you die..." he paused before stepping back and regaining his composure. Gaara stepped back and away from Mayu letting her breath as their closeness vanished. He briefly turned his back to Mayu before meeting those deep charcoal eyes longing for the spark he'd last seen when they parted ways four years ago; him with the goal to become Kazekage and Mayu with hers to be the best Kunoichi the village had seen. When he spoke he was back to his calm normal self "Mayu go ahead if life means that little," both of them took a harsh breath before Gaara continued, "but if you give up meaninglessly then the lives you took were for nothing and only _**then**_ have you truly done those dead an injustice." Then Gaara disappeared in a flurry of sand and Mayu was left on the roof in silence.

In the next weeks Mayu's wounds healed and she was freed from the hospital; she hadn't seen Gaara again after that. Not long after released she found herself sitting on the hot sand in the center of Suna's cemetery staring at the K.I.A. stone in complete silence. Then once again, just like on the roof, Mayu found herself staring up at the sky. The sky; where her grandmother was, where her comrades were and where her victims were. "Granny I think you'd whack me on the head for ever thinking like this," Mayu mumbled upwards, "I miss you...I don't want to be alone though Granny..." "If you're alone then I guess I would fail my job as, what did you call it?" Gaara spoke from behind her. She started walking out of the cemetery with him at her side. Mayu chuckled as he found the word saying questioningly "Bestie? That's what you called it, stupid little girl." "Yes bestie and I think I got brave points walking up to someone with such a grumpy face on and possible cooties." Mayu replied breezily but Gaara only gave her a dry look, one of his signature looks that held emotion you had to search for. They paused before where the village became busy and crowded. "I mean it Mayu," he took a breath, "you wouldn't leave me alone and for that I'm grateful and I'll do the same for you. It hurts," Gaara briefly touched where his heart would be, "here when I think of you as dead." "I feel the same, it hurt not being with you for so long" Mayu mumbled looking at the ground. He softly touched her cheek "then neither of us leaves again," he said quietly. Mayu leaned to him and touched her lips to his softly, something so small to send so many sparks through both of them.

Mayu smiled to Gaara as they pulled away her eyes staring up into his as they almost ignited and with that a brilliant spark, small but sure, reappeared as Mayu pressed her forehead to Gaara's as he pulled her into another kiss.


End file.
